نشریه سیاست پژوهی ایرانی
سال چهارم شماره 4 (پیاپی 14، زمستان 1396)

Seminary is recognized as a forerunning and pioneering institution in Islamic education. Since early Islam, Seminaries have been formed for “education” and somehow leadership of Muslim community for better recognition of religion and its practice; this role, as a matter of time, has been widely expanded particularly when the Islamic Revolution came into existence. Seminaries are included among the effective institutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran; therefore, it is expected that it plays a civilization-making role. Considering the increased responsibilities of seminaries, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, this institution must revolutionarily appear at the campaigning scene and in addition to learning role, it shall move towards teaching, ethics and knowledge-orientation and present strategies to achieve this aim. If it fails to do so, it will be disintegrated because man has experienced ideological and mental gap after humanism, which has provided seminaries with opportunities in this regard. This article mainly raises the question that “what qualifications should revolutionary seminary have to achieve the Islamic civilization and its leadership”? In response, it can be said that revolutionary seminary, as an important and rooted institution in Islam and Iran which has been origin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and considering the gap humanism faces can appear at the scene with triangle of knowledge, ethics and revolutionary action and present strategies for reaching modern Islamic civilization. This paper is being prepared based an analytic-descriptive methodology, library and documentary sources.

Seminary is recognized as a forerunning and pioneering institution in Islamic education. Since early Islam, Seminaries have been formed for “education” and somehow leadership of Muslim community for better recognition of religion and its practice; this role, as a matter of time, has been widely expanded particularly when the Islamic Revolution came into existence. Seminaries are included among the effective institutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran; therefore, it is expected that it plays a civilization-making role. Considering the increased responsibilities of seminaries, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, this institution must revolutionarily appear at the campaigning scene and in addition to learning role, it shall move towards teaching, ethics and knowledge-orientation and present strategies to achieve this aim. If it fails to do so, it will be disintegrated because man has experienced ideological and mental gap after humanism, which has provided seminaries with opportunities in this regard. This article mainly raises the question that “what qualifications should revolutionary seminary have to achieve the Islamic civilization and its leadership”? In response, it can be said that revolutionary seminary, as an important and rooted institution in Islam and Iran which has been origin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and considering the gap humanism faces can appear at the scene with triangle of knowledge, ethics and revolutionary action and present strategies for reaching modern Islamic civilization. This paper is being prepared based an analytic-descriptive methodology, library and documentary sources.

Undoubtedly, seminaries have stood by and are standing by the Islamic regimes as to their inherent features and main function; role of religious reference authorities, seminary scholars and clerics has been an avant-garde and forerunning role in the past century, particularly in the Islamic Revolution. Following the idea of the supreme leader about seminaries being revolutionary, this paper seeks to explore the factors of maintaining revolutionary morale beside function of maintaining, supporting and constructively criticizing the Islamic regime of Iran. For the supreme leader, “relation of clergymen with the Islamic regime is that of support and advice”. Naturally, this requires functional and revolutionary discourse to stop the perilous campaigns leading to anti-revolution state of seminaries in a well-conceived and acceptable process and revolutionary morale that is transcendentally originated from political thought of Imam Khomeini and the supreme leader is elucidated. Because this paper deals with revolutionary seminary and the issue of maintaining regime, basic alternatives for monitoring and supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran regime have been taken into account in three components of culture, economics and politics by means of analytic-descriptive methodology; totally, six major features of the revolutionary seminary including updated Islamic culture, promulgation of interaction and discourse, anti-destitution morale, morale of solving public livelihood and economic problems, systemic creativity and thinking in politics and finally promotion of competitively political partnership have been discussed. Of course, in each point of discussion, firstly, characteristics of revolutionary seminary, secondly, supervisory role and aftermaths and positive-negative effect of such features have been referred to.

Rationality of revolutionary seminary has come to existence from reliable link of seminary to the Islamic regime. The most important indicators of such rationality in its productive role updated and proportionate to demand of seminary ijtihad capacity and knowledge system can be named as power of forward-looking in the framework of political philosophy system of Islam, ability of resolving external interventions and internal conflicts, religious freethinking and release from prejudice, petrification, induration, fundamentalism, reactionarism, management of solving crisis, passing through political-mental ruptures, consolidation of loyalties and reorganization of ideological and mental bindings. Such parameters have resulted in seminary to be reliable and dynamic in the field of political life. Challenges that cause seminary to stay far from religious freethinking, creation of prejudice and petrification, inefficiency and mental obstructions, lack of futurism and smeared political loyalty are included among the most important harms of revolutionary seminary political thought.

Considering the fact that clergymen in Iran’s seminaries in general have had three approaches of reformism, revolutionarism and traditional/conservatism compared to Pahlavi political system and since the Islamic Revolution has divided clergymen into marked spectra of revolutionary ones and non-revolutionary ones, the present paper aims to make strong and weak points of revolutionary approach known from among the three approaches they have had in relation to socio-political changes during the Islamic Republic of Iran. To achieve this aim, main questions raised in the paper are: “How have revolutionary clergymen reacted to socio-political changes and what status has revolutionary approach in the 38 years passed the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran had in rebuilding new human and social environment?” the author claims that the revolutionary approach could not achieve its politico-social ideals and goals because, on one hand it neither could get rid of heavy shadow of traditional approach, nor could benefit from reformist approach. On the other hand, it could not, due its internal weakness, put into practice its concerned changes culturally, socially and politically since it faces a problem in separating the two “me”, meaning I am revolutionary and I am supporter of political system; since what “I am revolutionary” wants it to do and what “I support the Islamic Republic of Iran wants it to do can be two different things that at times result in conflict; therefore, their separation is a very difficult task. The author has tried to discuss, critically and politico-sociologically revolutionarism of seminary scholars and to deal with the issues associated as social phenomenon. The results and achievements of the article can be used for basic and applied investigations related to clergymen.

It is necessary for all nations to achieve development to have renewal of national identity. In the history of Iran, there have been three sources including religious, modern and traditional-Iranian sources. Now, the questions raised are that “how has the Islamic Republic of Iran resolved challenges of multiple sources of identity in creating new national identity?” “How have seminaries played a role in forming post-Islamic Revolution national identity?” Lack of consensus in this respect has led to formation of identity crisis and as a result, appearance of barriers on the way to development. In this paper, it is hypothesized that national identity is current and changeable and discourse in open space for creation of national identity and acceptance of democratic manners of attracting elements joint or suitable in relation to other identities can solve the problem. Seminaries as bearers of revolution and the most important identity-giving revolutionary element can play a leading role in developing Islamic and national identity and keep people contented with national identity based on Iranian-Islamic modeling in such an environment. But in practice, this role is not played and it has caused society to deal with challenges. The research has applied analytic-descriptive methodology.

Seminaries have been established with an aim to achieve philosophy of prophethood of the Prophets and to recognize, propagate and safeguard Islam and guidance of men and communities and finally, emergence of Islamic civilizations can regarded as their final goals. Since it is not possible to access to the afore-mentioned goals through secular human sciences, production of Islamic human sciences is considered to be among the first grade duties of seminaries. The present article has subjected attainment of the desirable human sciences to three actions taken by seminary and seminary scholars while it pays attention to a need for change in human sciences. These three actions are: a). Pathology and criticism of the prevalent human sciences; b). Production of necessary theoretical texts about the ideas of the Islamic human sciences; c). Attribution of religious doctrines and teachings to human sciences components and elements.

Modern Islamic civilization is in fact a macro-strategy that is situated within deep awakening and Islamic movements, particularly the Islamic Revolution and the Muslim world has the capacity and pure Islamic thought has the competence to keep this civilization with all dimensions and angles established. The main question of this paper is that “what role does seminary play in forming and dynamic shaping of modern Islamic civilization?” the article hypothesizes that it up to seminary to engineer modern Islamic civilization, educate managers and agents involved. In other words, revolutionary seminary and perspective ahead is materialization of modern Islamic civilization which is not made possible without seminaries having a part to play. The most significant role of seminary in achievement of modern Islamic civilization obtained in this research are: 1. Efficient and conceptual elucidation of frameworks, goals and models monitoring modern Islamic civilization based on which its achievement demands an epistemological system which has Islamic learnings in focus; 2. Paving the ground for emergence of Imam of the Age (may Allah hasten his emergence); 3. Providing capacities and cherishing efficient forces in proportion to revolutionary mission are included among other requirements for materializing the modern Islamic civilization. Hence, establishment of modern Islamic civilization and as a result, transformation of the western material culture into Islamic civilization remain collateral to resolution of civilization, Islamization, society and Islamic state, which with no doubt will be bridged through seminaries and government provided they remain revolutionary.